|
Return to Writings
Oyate Okiciyapi evolving in Rancid City
Affiliated with the November Coalition
A column
By Hazel Bonner
16 March 2004
A new organiztion, born out of disenchantment in the lack of progress being made on key issues affecting grass roots people here in Rancid City, is near finalization. Articles of incorporation have been drawn up and will be submitted for a state charter this week.
Vera Janis contacted the November Coalition to discuss major issues involving injustice in Rancid City and asked them to talk with me. They did so, and are anxious to assist us in fighting injustice. They have been emailed our articles and will be posting a web page for us on their web site.
November coalition was established to fight the injustices of the drug war. Boy there is a lot of that going around here. You know Rancid city is in the middle of a corridor of counties that have been designated a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). That means Rancid City and County Sheriffs Offices have received an influx of money to hire new officers and improve surveillance.
Now, if the drug war was getting drugs off our streets, I would be all for it. Drugs are a curse on our society. However, the drug war is really a war on poor people and people of color. Too often the drug czars use confidential informants, usually white convicted drug dealers, who say what the government want them to say to stay out of prioson. Those people remain on the streets dealing drugs to our children.
Remember the primary witness against Richard is a convicted dealer on parole. The home where Richard was arrested was the residence of he and his wife, out on bond on a no drugs condition facing sentencing in Wyoming. The home had drugs and much paraphernalia, I am told enough equipment for a meth lab, and none of it was seized. From their own lips they were told to go home and get rid of it. As long as they pointed the finger at Richard, they received a get out of jail free card. He folks, it happens all the time.
Did you know that according to a report from the National Association of State Budget Officers in June, 2000, state governments spent $32.5 billion on corrections in 1997 alone. To compare, states only spent $22.2 billion on assistance to the poor.
The United States operates the largest prison system in the world. The overall U.S. incarceration rate is eight times that of the nearest Western competitors. Guess what, we also have the highest crime rates among our Western competitors.
My son and many others sent to prison for drugs, are not dealers, but addicts. Over half of those who ask for drug treatment on the streets are turned away and a larger portion of those who seek treatment for drugs while incarcerated do not get it. And you know when a person convicted of a drug crime gets out of prison, they must be denied financial aid for higher education, but convicted murderers and rapists can get the assistance.
Join Oyate Okiciyapi (people/nations helping one another) to fight these injustices and many others. A program announcement about the plan for the group and contact information will be forthcoming.
NEWS UPDATES. The robbery charges against Richard for the armed robbery of the Casino on January 15, got curioser and curioser this week. I cannot share the information I have discovered but there were five witnesses to the robbery and none of them described the robber in the way the description was given to news media. And Ryan Cox was one of the officers responding. Of course he’s such an upstanding cop that he couldn’t even testify as himself at a preliminary hearing in a case last year in which the charged person was critically injured by Cox and his partner in Sioux Addition.
Remember the case of NATALIE LONGEE, the indigenous female soldier raped at Ft. Hood Texas in January 2003, then sent to Iraq without receiving any assistance with the issues surrounding the rape? While in Iraq she was harassed unmercifully because the roommate of the accused rapist was her unit commander and shared information about the rape with her unit. She was physically assaulted, taunted, referred to as "Our favorite little Indian girl" and nicknamed Torso.
The military finally charged her attacker, Patrick Eiland, with one count of rape and one count of attempted sodomy in February, 13 months after the rape occurred. Last week a military hearing in the case began at Fort Hood. Ms. Longee was questioned extensively; especially about media accounts of the terror she faced at the hands of her own unit in Iraq. Her mother, Margaret Longee Vague, was also questioned extensively about the media accounts and her finances according to stories in the Killeen Daily Herald and the Houston Chronicle on March 12.
Now exactly what do the accounts of the treatment of Natalie in Iraq and the financial situation of her mother have to do with the guilt or innocence of Eiland, who is represented by 2 military attorneys Capt. Mark Santos and Capt. Chari Kelly? I understand the grilling of the victim and her mother went on for hours.
A very small amount of time was given to the testimony of two registered nurses from Darnall Army Community Hospital on Fort Hood and Scott and White Memorial Hosptal in Tempe. Members of Longee’s current and previous chain of command also testified.
Then, in a move that seems even stranger, a recess was called until March 25, to give soldiers from Iraq a chance to testify. Mrs Vague called me and informed me she had received an email from the mother of a soldier in the unit informing her that everyone in the unit has closed ranks against Natalie. What exactly do the events in Iraq have to do with the rape at Ft. Hood?
So far this hearing, which the Killeen Daily Herald says is the military’s equivalent of a grand jury hearing to see if there is enough evidence to formally charge Eiland, appears to be a trial of Natalie and her mother.
Mrs. Vague told me, being very careful not to share anything about her testimony, that she is withdrawing the request for donations to a defense fund, because of the questions about her finances. She did say she had received only $20 from a couple in California and had returned that. An independent person or agency needs to set up and seek donations to a fund for justice for Natalie Longee.
It is so typical that a rape victim is put on trial, but I hoped the military did better than civilian courts. Obviously not! And the military is under investigation because of the disclosure and documentaion by the Denver Post, which took Ms. Longee to Washington last November. Our own base, EAFB is one of the bases being investigated for their handling of sexual abuse on that base. Same song, second verse, a little bit louder and a little bit worse. Women and minorities are people too!!
Bonner is a freelance writer who writes from her home. She can be reached electronically at hbonpidge1@hotmail.com; by mail at PO Box 3712, Rapid City, SD 57709-3712; or by phone at (605) 343-4467.
home : mission statement : contact : site map : search : store : links
DLN coalition : DLN issues : DLN nation : related issues Any reprints are under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law : See http://www.dlncoalition.org/fair_use.htm.
|
Photograph--Alfred Bone Shirt Sr. wearing a peace medal.